Courage Under Fire

She tried one of the double doors that were the main entrance to the building. Locked.

Oscar had gotten in somehow. She saw then a hole in the display window. Not big enough for her to slip through. She walked around to the side of the building and found a door that looked like it had been jimmied. Someone desperate for a place to sleep on a cold fall night had probably done that. Knowing that she might surprise someone, she pulled her gun.

She rushed in. She heard Oscar’s whimper before she saw him in the dark corner. Broken display counters and pieces of mannequins still remained in the dust and debris.

A sense of relief flooded through her as she ran over to the puppy. She holstered her weapon and gathered him in her arms. “It’s all right, buddy. That was scary for me too.” The pup licked her face.

Thudding sounds came from the floor above her. Footsteps. Her heart beat a little faster. Maybe the air conditioner had had a little help by being pushed. Maybe the lock was jimmied by someone up to no good, not just looking for a place to sleep.

“Tell you what, buddy. You’ve had enough excitement for one day.” She wrapped his leash around a door knob. She still hadn’t been issued a new radio. Protocol would be to call for backup. That wasn’t possible right now. She’d neglected to get another cell phone after hers was damaged by the water last night.

Chances were she was dealing with a vagrant, nothing more. He or she could have leaned against the air-conditioning unit...or the destruction might have been on purpose. Or just someone so high or drunk, they didn’t know what they were doing.

Oscar yipped as if to offer encouragement. More footsteps sounded above her. She pulled her weapon and headed up the wide staircase in the center of the floor. The second floor was an open area with broken glass and display counters largely dismantled and probably used for firewood. Mattresses and dusty clothing scattered throughout the floor indicated the homeless had taken up residence at one time. Maybe they were still here. None of the big front display windows on this floor contained air conditioners.

She scanned the open floor area one quadrant at a time. There were places someone could hide, behind the piles of busted furniture and boxes and the display counters. She detected no movement. She held her own breath and listened, sensing that someone was watching her. Her mouth went dry. “NYPD. Please show yourself.”

Turning quickly and aiming her weapon, she thought she saw someone in her peripheral vision. She let out a breath. Just a mannequin. She shook her head and dryly laughed.

There were smaller rooms on the south side of the building that might have been offices or storage spaces. Some had doors, some did not. With her heart drumming in her ears, she made her way toward the rooms.

Her own footsteps seemed to echo on the floorboards. The first room had no door, she peered inside seeing only empty shelving. She lifted her weapon and made her way to the second room. She held her gun in one hand while she opened the door with the other.

A hand went over her mouth and jerked her back. The attacker had come up from behind. “I got you.” He pinched the nerves on her wrist. “Drop the gun.”

Pain shot up her arm, but she held on to the gun. She angled her body side to side trying to escape his iron hold on her. In the struggle, she dropped her gun. She broke free, whirled around and slammed him hard in the stomach. The man, who was wearing a blue baseball cap, bent over. She scrambled to get her weapon.

The man recovered quickly and took off running just as she picked up her gun. Footsteps pounded behind her. Not another one. She whirled around aiming her weapon just in time to see Noah coming up the stairs.

On reflex, Noah pointed his gun at her. “Whoa.”

Unable to form the question, she shook her head as if to ask what he was doing.

“I saw movement on the third-floor window where that thing fell out. I was just getting ready to walk around the corner to headquarters, but there was a construction accident that blocked the sidewalk, so it took me a minute to run back over here.”

But he was here. That’s what mattered.

She pointed. “He went toward the stairwell leading up.”

They both raced across the floor. The culprit must have been trying to get out via the first floor when Lani had interrupted him on the second floor. Noah took the lead as they headed up the stairs.

The third floor consisted of a hallway and a series of rooms that were probably offices and storage. There was no obvious exit.

Lani pointed, signaling that they could work their way from either end toward the middle, clearing each room. She moved into the first room, cleared it and stepped back into the hallway just in time to see Noah disappear into a room on the opposite end of the hallway.

She stepped into the second room, which featured a large window that looked out on the street. A knocked-over file cabinet and pieces of a desk that must have been quite beautiful in its time cluttered the floor. This could have been the CEO’s or store manager’s office. There was no evidence a transient lived here, though she did see the hole that likely contained the air-conditioning unit that now lay in pieces on the street.

She shuddered. What was in the mind of someone who would push something out a window knowing there were people down below who could be hurt?

She heard the thunder of footsteps. Heart racing, weapon drawn, Lani stepped back out into the hallway just in time to see Noah sprinting toward the far end of the building.

Noah looked over his shoulder. “He’s headed up to the roof.”

Noah disappeared around a corner. Lani followed after him, praying they would catch their suspect.

Moments before, Noah had stepped out on a fire escape and spotted the suspect climbing out on a different fire escape and taking a ladder up toward the roof. He had raced back inside to see if there was an easier way to get to the roof. That’s when he’d seen Lani and told her the suspect was headed up to the roof.

He hurried out to the landing where the suspect had gone. The fire escape, which looked like it was hanging by maybe one bolt, was clearly not a safe route down. He peered up just in time to see the suspect’s feet disappear over the top of the building.

Noah holstered his weapon and leaped up the uneven brick facade that the suspect had used as a sort of climbing wall. His muscles strained as he pulled himself up. He glanced down only for a moment to see the throngs of people and metal of cars glinting in the early morning sun. He found another foothold as his hands wrapped around the protruding brick above him.

Lani came out on the balcony. She groaned. “Are you kidding me.”

Noah looked down at her. “Join the fun.” He scaled the rest of the wall and pulled himself up to the flat roof. The suspect raced from one corner of the roof to another. He was trapped.

Noah pushed himself to his feet. He pulled his weapon just in time to see the man leap to the adjoining building. As chief, Noah was not out in the field enough to warrant having a radio. There was no time to make a call on his cell. He had to rely on Lani for backup. The suspect did not appear to be armed or he would have pulled a weapon by now.

He raced across the roof. There was about a five-foot chasm between the two buildings. Without hesitation, Noah pushed off. He stretched his right leg out in front, watching the edge of the building looming toward him. He landed with a thud. His knees buckled screaming with pain from the impact. The suspect had reached the edge of the second building. He hesitated, glanced back at Noah and then disappeared over the side. The guy must have found a safer fire escape.

Noah’s heart pounded against his rib cage as his leg muscles strained. He sprinted toward where the suspect had gone. He peered down and saw only the top of his blue baseball cap. The guy had already made it to the top floor down the fire escape ladder. Noah swung down onto the ladder. He’d gone down only four rungs when Lani’s voice reached him. She’d made up the distance between them pretty easily. “I’m going to look for a faster way down. See if we can cut him off.”

He glanced up to see her head and shoulders as she looked down. Her bright expression and blue-eyed gaze met his. “Go find it.”

She disappeared.

The suspect had only a short way to go down the ladder before he reached the street. Noah climbed faster narrowing the distance between them. When the suspect was halfway down the last part of the ladder, he jumped the remainder of the distance.

Lani emerged from the side of the building just as the man ran toward a crowded street market. She must have found an elevator in the building. Noah climbed two more rungs and then jumped, landing on his feet. He whirled around.

He could see Lani’s blond head. She was in uniform but had lost her hat somewhere. The tight little bun on top of her head was easy enough to track in a crowd. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere, but Lani ran like she still had sight of him.

He hurried past booths selling handbags and scarves. The aromatic scent of street vendor food swirled in the air, the mingling scent of salt, a heady sweetness and other spices. Noah kept his eyes on Lani. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. Still running, Lani merged with a throng of people. She towered above them. She stopped, glancing side to side.

He surveyed the area. Then he saw a blue baseball hat on the ground beside a food cart that sold gyros. The guy had ditched the hat knowing it would be an easy way to track him.

Lani turned back to face Noah, shaking her head before pushing deeper into the crowd. She wasn’t one to give up easily even though he had a feeling the suspect had managed to give them the slip.

Taking slow steps, he ambled past the vendors, scanning the crowd one more time while he caught his breath. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. He retraced his steps, searching for the baseball hat thinking it might have DNA on it, but it had either been picked up or kicked out of view. He worked his way back to the edge of the street market, asking several of the vendors if they had seen the man in a blue baseball cap or seen a man take the cap off and throw it on the ground. All of them shook their heads.

When he glanced over his shoulder, Lani was headed toward him. As she drew closer, he knew that wrinkled forehead indicated her frustration.

She stood beside him and crossed her arms. “I guess that is that. I don’t know what gets into people thinking it’s okay to endanger public safety by pushing an air-conditioning unit out a window.”

Concern niggled at the edges of Noah’s brain. Lani had been attacked twice in forty-eight hours. “You don’t think maybe that guy was aiming specifically for you?”

Her face went pale and she didn’t answer right away. “He was probably just someone with mental illness issues or a drug problem. Don’t you think? Besides, how would someone know that I would be walking by that building at that time?”

“You keep the same routine every day, don’t you?”